Abstract
Rhetoric is a creative means to design and organize discourse in order for it to be persuasive but not manipulative. Often, the word rhetoric is used synonymous with stylistics; but in fact, rhetoric includes the whole process of designing a communicative intervention in response to an exigence that emerges in the context. As such, rhetorical discourse is characterized by a specific orientation in relation to its audience, by the importance of the character (ethos) of the speaker, and by sound arguments. In particular, at the heart of rhetorical discourse lies the process of inventio, that is, exploring possible discursive worlds and identifying appropriate arguments based on sources known as loci. Rhetorical discourse has several applications in contemporary communication; prime examples are found in political discourse, business communication, storytelling, and advertising.
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Greco, S., Mazzali-Lurati, S. (2022). Rhetoric. In: The Palgrave Encyclopedia of the Possible. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-98390-5_8-3
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